Latvian Socialist Soviet Republic

The Latvian Socialist Soviet Republic was a short-lived socialist republic that existed from 17 December 1918 to 13 January 1920, with Dvinsk (Daugavpils) serving as its capital. The republic, assisted by the Bolsheviks from Soviet Russia, quickly captured much of Latvia during the Latvian War of Independence, and Peteris Stucka's communist government introduced sweeping reforms, such as expropriating property from the bourgeoisie and nationalizing all agrarian land. The latter act had dire economic consequences for the cities as rural support for the regime declined drastically; peasants refused to supply food to the government, leading to the city folk starving. A wave of terror swept both rural and urban areas, seeking out alleged counter-revolutionaries supposedly responsible for the failures of the regime. In 1919, the Latvian nationalist regime and the Freikorps launched an offensive against the Reds and liberated much of the country from them. On 22 May 1919, Riga was liberated from the Reds, and the Latvian Reds were finally defeated at Daugavpils in early 1920. In 1940, the Soviet Union occupied Latvia and created the new Latvian SSR, this time known as the "Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic".